Marie Valentini

+33 7 68 40 39 18

mv@rory.legal

Marie Valentini is a member of the Paris Bar and has been called to the Bar of England and Wales. She assists and represents French and foreign companies in domestic and international, institutional and ad hoc, commercial arbitration proceedings subject to French and English laws. She also acts as arbitrator. She has extensive experience of arbitration-related litigation before the French courts and in particular of proceedings to set awards aside and appeals against exequatur orders.

Her practice notably focuses on the defence, telecoms, banking and transport sectors, in post-acquisition disputes, shareholders disputes, disputes relating to agency and services agreements and disputes raising EU sanctions issues.

A former representative of the International Chamber of Commerce’s Young Arbitration and ADR Forum (ICC YAAF) for the European Chapter (2021-2024), Marie is also a member of several arbitration practitioners’ associations, including CFA40 and YIAG. She also authored a number of publications on arbitration and is a regular speaker at conferences and university courses.

Marie’s arbitration practice has been recognised by several international rankings, including Legal 500 EMEA (Rising Star, 2024), WWL (Future Leader, since 2023) and Best Lawyers (since 2021).

Few relevant experiences :

As counsel:

Counsel to a French subsidiary of a major European industrial group in ad hoc arbitration proceedings initiated by a former Lebanese agent, in the defence sector. The financial value of the dispute was EUR 450 million. The seat of the arbitration was London (United Kingdom) and English law was applicable to the dispute.
Counsel to a Russian company in a dispute between shareholders of a gold mine in Laos, first in ICC arbitration proceedings seated in Paris (France) and subject to Lao law, then in proceedings to set aside the award before the Paris Court of Appeal (award set aside on the grounds of breach of international public policy).
Counsel to European and US subsidiaries of a major European industrial group in a post-acquisition ICC arbitration in the telecommunications sector, raising in particular issues of fraudulent misrepresentations / deceit (« dol »). The financial value of the dispute was EUR 22 million. The seat of the arbitration was Paris (France) and French law was applicable to the dispute.
Counsel to subsidiaries of a major French industrial group in several ICC arbitration proceedings, in the defence sector and in the telecommunications sector, against Latin American commercial agents, raising compliance issues and impact of criminal proceedings. The proceedings were seated in Amsterdam (the Netherlands) and the applicable law was Dutch law.
Counsel to an American group and several of its French subsidiaries prior to the commencement of three LCIA arbitration proceedings (seat London, English law) and in the context of preliminary proceedings before the French commercial courts, in particular in relation to collection of evidence (article 145 of the French Code of Civil Procedure) and summary proceedings.

As arbitrator:

Sole arbitrator in an ICC arbitration between English and US companies and a Russian company. The proceedings were conducted under the ICC Expedited Procedure Rules. The seat of the arbitration was Paris (France) and the governing law was English law.